Page 78 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

THE ENCYCLO PE DIA OF TAO ISM VOL. r

they might be ingested or worn on the person when engaging in ritual or prior
to encountering danger. They were held to reveal the true forms of deities
or to serve as passports that might aid the passage from the earth-prisons of
the dead, who received them in spiritual form after ritual burning. As aids
in meditation, fu might bring the user face to face with a deity or reveal the
inner workings of the cosmos. Finally, in ritual,fu are not always written, but
might be inscribed in the air with sword, staff, or thunderblock, and activated
by breath-magic.
Whole scriptures were created with talismans as their centerpiece. Such,
for instance, is the case with the *Lingbao wufu xu (Prolegomena to the Five
Talismans of the Numinous Treasure), the *Wupianzhenwen (Perfected Script
in Five Tablets), and the Wuchengfu lim~ (Five Talismans of Correspon-
dence) of the ancient *Lingbao scriptures, as well as with the Lingbao suling
zhenfu iH!f :~Ui.~ (Authentic Talismans of the Immaculate umen of
the uminous Treasure) transmitted by *Du Guangting. In these cases, the
primordial divine form of the scripture was said to reside in the talismans
themselves. The scripture that contains them only recounts their origin and
uses. The centrality of these useful divine "texts" can be seen in the fact that
the twelve traditional generic subdivisions of each "cavern" (see *SANDONC )
of the Taoist Canon listed "Divine Talismans" (shenfu f$~) second, right after
"Basic Texts" (benwen ;$:")(; see table 27). Consequently, all ritual compendia
came to contain talismans, as well as directions for their writing and use. The
rigor Taoists showed in transmitting and inscribing talismans can be seen
in how extremely well examples found in the *Dunhuang manuscripts or
archeologically excavated accord with those printed in the Ming canon.
Related forms of divine writing, not always easy to distinguish from fu, are
known by a variety of names, including "cloud seal- cript," "secret language
of the Great Brahma" (*dafan yinyu) and "registers" (*LU). Various forms of
charts (tu !ii'ill) also function as talismans, though they are separately listed in
Taoist bibliographies.
Stephen R. BOKENKAMP
m Campany 2002, 61- 69; Chen Hsiang-ch'un 1942; Despeux 2000a; Drexler
1994; Harper 1998, 179- 83 and 301; Lagerwey 1981b, ro6- ro; Lagerwey 1986;
Legeza 1975; Little 2000b, 201- 7; des Rotours 1952; Seidel 1983a; Strickmann
2002, 123-93 and passim; Wang Yucheng 1996; Wang Yucheng 1999

* LU